Dent May, Dead Gaze

Dent May

Jackson, Mississippi native Dent May grew up singing in local church groups, acting in school plays, and performing at nursing home gigs with a recorder choir. In high school, he wrote synthy powerpop with his band The Rockwells while recording erotically charged novelty tracks with friends on the side. After three unsuccessful semesters at NYU's film school, May moved to North Mississippi where he helped found the Cats Purring arts collective and formed a countryrock band called Cowboy Maloney's Electric City. In late 2007, inspired by Serge Gainsbourg and Lee Hazlewood, he began performing as Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele and released a digital E.P. of cheeky lofi tunes, A Brush With Velvet. The title is a reference to The Partridge Family, episodes of which May obsessively collected and organized on VHS tapes as a teen. His debut album, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, was recorded with Rusty Santos in May's home, a doublewide trailer in Taylor, Mississippi (population: 300). He continues to perform with Cowboy Maloney's Electric City, and recently began recording dance music under the moniker Dent Sweat.

Dead Gaze

Coming from the hills of North Mississippi and the Cats Purring Collective (featuring prolific artists like Dent May, Bass Drum of Death and Flight), Cole Furlow has been releasing material under the guise of Dead Gaze since 2009, recently morphing into a five-piece live band. Combining effortless pop songs with recordings that put an emphasis on texture, Dead Gaze has released a slew of cassettes and 7" records on notable DIY labels like Group Tightener, Fire Talk, and Clan Destine, and received critical acclaim on sites such as Altered Zones, The Fader, and Weekly Tape Deck... Furlow explains that he records "wherever I can be alone". Whether it be in the pastoral Mississippi country where his mother lives, the State College marching band hall where his father teaches, or at the Cats Purring 'Dude Ranch' where he currently resides, his intention is always to "try to capture a very memorable moment", a spontaneous approach which home recording makes possible. The DIY ethos that goes into Furlow's recording process shouldn't feed into the lo-fi genre-trapping, though, as every sound Furlow commits to tape is deliberate. Dead Gaze's trademark over-compressed sound is one which has come from Furlow's belief in the importance of production as another instrument; "I think texture is something that is just as important as writing nice melodies and recording big songs".